Tewksbury Town Meeting snubs slots-parlor plan (VIDEO)

TEWKSBURY -- Cheering and clapping as they stood to be counted at Special Town Meeting Tuesday night, 1,568 Tewksbury residents defeated a plan to bring a slots-only casino to their town.

Town Moderator Keith Rauseo hadn't finished reading the results before the packed gym at Tewksbury Memorial High School erupted in cheers again, celebrating the failure of a zoning amendment that would have allowed a Pennsylvania-based company to build a $200 million slots-only casino in an office park on Ames Pond Drive.

"This proposal is as slick and as shiny as fool's gold, and we are foolhardy if we accept it," said former School Committee Chairman Scott Consaul.

Town officials had highlighted the successes of Penn National Gaming casinos in other states.

Top: A standing-room-only crowd inside Tewksbury Memorial High School's gym, which set an attendance record for Town Meeting, rejected a
rezoning proposal for a slots-only casino off Ames Pond Drive.
Left: Slots opponent Warren Carey makes his case against Penn National's plan. SUN photos/Julia Malakie
For video and a slide show on Tewksbury's Special Town Meeting, visit lowellsun.com.

On Town Meeting floor, resident Warren Carey countered that other places were irrelevant.

"I am only interested and impressed by the voters of Tewksbury, who have told me by the hundreds in the last couple weeks that they do not want a slot parlor in Tewksbury," Carey said.

Penn National announced its plan to build a 1,250- machine slots parlor off of Route 133 on July 11, and a grassroots opposition movement followed almost immediately, organizing first on social media, then meeting in local churches, printing yard signs, penning blog posts and contacting their neighbors, promising to come out in droves.

"I know it was a good win, but I'm not surprised," said Fred Simon, a Tewksbury resident of more than 40 years and an outspoken slots opponent.

Advertisement

"I sensed something going on."

With a record-high turnout of 2,563 voters, the high school's parking lot was full an hour before the meeting. Two additional satellite parking lots were added, beyond the three originally planned. Voters continued to check in after a half-hour delay intended to accommodate the lines. Overflow areas were set up in the auditorium and cafeteria, where audio was piped in, and voters who still couldn't fit stood along the gym's raised track.

Zoning amendments require a two-thirds majority to pass. The 995 votes in favor of the casino gave it less than half of those needed, for a final vote of 61 percent no to 39 percent yes.

On a unanimous voice vote, Town Meeting decided to end debate and vote on the zoning change after around 20 speakers. The assembly also limited discussion to Tewksbury residents, banning visitors, including representatives from the gaming company, from taking the floor.

"Tonight belongs to the residents of Tewksbury," Rauseo said after the voice vote against visitor comments.

Tewksbury will still hold a referendum, scheduled for Sept. 21, on whether to allow gaming in town.

Residents wait in line to sign in even with Special Town Meeting under way. SUN photos/Julia Malakie

The project was expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent ones. Penn National would have been required to pay the town $1.12 million annually, on top of anticipated property taxes of more than $3 million.

Speaking during Town Meeting, Town Manager Richard Montuori said the influx of new revenue would go to "areas we have knowingly neglected for years because we did not have the money to improve them," including upgrades to the schools and roads, new senior-center programs and hiring teachers, police officers and library staff.

Supporters of the zoning change said a casino would also encourage much-needed new business in town.

From left, Selectman Jim Wentworth, selectmen Chairman Scott Wilson and Town Manager Richard Montuori review their notes before the start of Tewksbury's Special Town Meeting.

Foster Road resident Bruce Panilaitis said that any money a casino brought in wouldn't be new, but rather the disposable income that people from the area would otherwise spend at local restaurants and bars.

Others brought up concerns of crime, lower property values, traffic and harm to the small-town character that draws families to move there.

With Tewksbury out of the running, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will decide whether to award the state's lone slots-parlor license to a proposal in Leominster, Millbury or Raynham, pending local approval in each community.

A referendum in Raynham passed with 86 percent of the vote last week. Leominster and Millbury residents vote on Sept. 24.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.